According to a recent CalMatters article, “Nearly 1,700 schools across the country were affected by ransomware attacks last year, according to New Zealand-based software company Emsisoft. In California, at least 26 schools have experienced a ransomware attack since 2019, often with harsh consequences: Sierra College had some systems shut down during finals week; Newhall School District’s 10 elementary schools went a week without online school during the pandemic; and UC San Francisco paid a $1.14 million ransom.”
CalMatters spoke with over a dozen cybersecurity experts to help answer how schools and readers can help protect themselves from Ransomward. “The first step to good cybersecurity, they said, might be a mindset shift… In the tech industry, this philosophy is called ‘zero trust networking.’ It’s the idea that even with VPNs, firewalls and other preventative measures, hackers can still infiltrate your networks.”
For a checklist of protective actions, see the article.
